The present invention relates to a device for attachment to, or embedding within an article for monitoring the article, or apparatus that the article forms part of. The invention has particular, though not exclusive, relevance to a device for securing to part of a vehicle for monitoring vehicle telemetry and/or the way in which vehicle is handled during use.
Currently there are a number of telematics ‘black-box’ devices available that can be installed within a vehicle, such as a car or a lorry, to allow information relating to the way in which the vehicle is driven (such as speed, acceleration, breaking, location, time-of-day, distance travelled etc.) and/or other vehicle related telemetry to be acquired and analysed. These devices routinely make use of Global Positioning System (GPS) and Inertial Motion Units (IMU) to determine the location and driving characteristics for a vehicle.
Typically, for example, such devices are installed in a vehicle on behalf of an insurer, fleet manager, or the owner of the vehicle, to enable monitoring of how well the vehicle is driven and to check that any usage conditions, such as restrictions on when and where vehicle can be driven, are met. The device can also be used to provide useful data in the event of an accident such as the speed being driven, whether the brakes were applied and/or other evasive action taken and/or whether collision impact was sufficient to cause certain types of injury.
In the case of insurance related systems, the owner of the vehicle (or other person who insures it), has the potential to receive significantly reduced premiums especially when the vehicle is analysed to be driven in a low risk manner compared to the normal risk associated with the risk profile of the driver (e.g. age, gender, previous claim history, etc.).
In other scenarios, owners of vehicles that are driven by others (e.g. company owners of lorry or other vehicle fleets such as vehicle hire companies, companies providing company cars to employees, haulage companies, delivery companies etc.), can use the black-box devices inter alia to monitor how their vehicle is being driven, whether a driver is ‘eco-driving’ to meet regulations or decrease fuel costs and/or whether a driver is complying with any specific conditions imposed on them (e.g. conditions on distance travelled, locations visited, times driven and/or the like).
There are two main types of black box, one is connected via an on-board diagnostics port (OBDII) connector, and the other is a specialist fitted standalone black box.
OBDII connected black boxes connect to a vehicle's controller area network (CAN) bus to listen for CAN data, such as vehicle speed etc. Such black boxes can potentially be fitted by a knowledgeable customer and are typically fitted somewhere under the dash or glovebox.
A specialist fitted black-box is generally more focused towards anti-theft and high risk drivers/cars. Such a black-box can be fitted almost anywhere on a vehicle, but needs to be wired into the power supply of the car (and often the ignition/alarm feeds). The specialist fitted black-box is, however, largely independent of the vehicle's own systems. For example, a specialist fitted black-box will often have its own GPS, modem/SIM, acceleration sensors, and gyroscope, will be tamper proof, and will often have an ability to initiate a tracker or similar service.
Whilst black-box devices are relatively small and lightweight, they are relatively expensive to purchase and install (especially those requiring specialist installation). In the insurance case, this may require additional insurance premiums to cover this cost or an upfront fee. In vehicle fleet case this represents a relatively high cumulative overhead. There may also be costs associated with the removal of the black-box device when no longer required or appropriate, for example when the vehicle is sold, the main driver and/or insurer is changed, and/or the driving profile of an existing driver no longer warrants the use of the black-box device.
Driver smart-phone apps are more commonplace, as these can simply be downloaded by drivers onto their own smart-device as part of a reduced-premium offer/option. The internal GPS in the smart-phone is then used by the app to derive vehicle usage data that can be uploaded to the insurer's server. In this case, as with the black box devices, the GPS allows a number of characteristics to be monitored including: how many miles a vehicle is driven; what sort or areas the vehicle is parked in; what sort of roads are driven along and at what speeds (which can be cross referenced with speed limits); what time of day the vehicle is being driven at (late at night or the rush hour for example); and potentially, by cross referencing with weather forecasts, in what conditions the vehicle is driven.
GPS however is not particularly suitable for monitoring the style of driving due to the low data rate (<2 Hz) not picking up the fine detail of manoeuvres and is relatively power intensive when being used substantially continuously which can potentially drain a smart-phone's battery quickly, and can reduce overall battery life. While some smart-phones have accelerometers, uncertainties surrounding the phones placement and orientation in the vehicle limit their benefit.